Teaching Computational Thinking

Supervisor: Prof Paul Curzon

Research group(s): Cognitive Science, Theory

There has been an overhaul in recent years in Computing education in primary and secondary schools with computer science based syllabuses replacing IT-based ones. A core idea has been to base the new syllabuses around computational thinking. However there is little experience in how best to teach computational thinking (both to students and pedagogy to teachers). Projects in this area will investigate effective pedagogy in teaching computational thinking, such as exploring unplugged approaches and ways it can be taught separate from but that supports programming, rather than just seeing it as something learnt as a side effect of learning to program. Research will involve developing approaches to teaching aspects of computational thinking and then exploring their effectiveness through experiments in classrooms. It therefore includes strong teaching experience as well as a strong computer science background.